Chie Mukai
Encyclopedia
is a female Japanese composer and musician, best known for her underground improv-folk group Ché-SHIZU
. She has been involved in improvised performance since 1975, when she participated in the East Bionic Symphonia
group, a graduation project for students of Takehisa Kosugi
at the Bigakko art school in Tokyo
. Her primary instrument is the bowed Chinese er-hu, although she is also a fascinating vocalist, and plays piano and percussion.
Every year she organizes the Perspective Emotion mixed media
arts festival in Tokyo. She has been frequently collaborating with Kenya Kawaguchi
, Masayoshi Urabe
, Seiichi Yamamoto
since 2010.
Ché-SHIZU
Ché-SHIZU Ché-SHIZU Ché-SHIZU (シェシズ）is an underground Japanese improv/folk group consisting of Chie Mukai (向井千恵) and others. The group's sound is dominated by Mukai's vocals and er-hu playing. The group was formed in 1980, but is currently inactive...
. She has been involved in improvised performance since 1975, when she participated in the East Bionic Symphonia
East Bionic Symphonia
East Bionic Symphonia were a group of improvisers and artists who studied together under Takehisa Kosugi at the Bigakko artschool in Tokyo in the mid-1970s. As a graduation project they recorded an album of free improvisation that was edited by Kosugi and released on the ALM label in 1976. Several...
group, a graduation project for students of Takehisa Kosugi
Takehisa Kosugi
is a Japanese composer and violinist associated with the Fluxus movement.Kosugi studied musicology at the Tokyo University of the Arts and graduated in 1962....
at the Bigakko art school in Tokyo
Tokyo
, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...
. Her primary instrument is the bowed Chinese er-hu, although she is also a fascinating vocalist, and plays piano and percussion.
Every year she organizes the Perspective Emotion mixed media
Mixed media
Mixed media, in visual art, refers to an artwork in the making of which more than one medium has been employed.There is an important distinction between "mixed-media" artworks and "multimedia art". Mixed media tends to refer to a work of visual art that combines various traditionally distinct...
arts festival in Tokyo. She has been frequently collaborating with Kenya Kawaguchi
Kenya Kawaguchi
is a Japanese shakuhachi musician. He has been living in New York City since 2006. He plays an un-lacquered, un-jointed, bamboo flute to help express his music directly and transcend any separation between performer and instrument in the tradition of Watazumido, and has been inspired by the playing...
, Masayoshi Urabe
Masayoshi Urabe
is a Japanese musician, best known for his intensely physical style of free improvisation on the alto saxophone and his deployment of long, laden silences. He has sometimes been compared to the late Japanese free jazz altoist Kaoru Abe...
, Seiichi Yamamoto
Seiichi Yamamoto
is a Japanese musician. While perhaps most famous for his role as guitarist for the noise rock band Boredoms, he has released multitudes of records both as a solo artist and with several other musicians and bands, in addition to composing the soundtracks to several films.- Solo projects :* Suido...
since 2010.
Solo
- Kokyu Improvisation (胡弓インプロヴィゼイション) CD (PSF, 1990) CD
- Three pieces, solo improvisations LP (Siwa, 2000; CD, 2007)
- Crossing CDR (there, 2004)
- V.A., Somethings #1 CD (Last Visible Dog, 2007)
Ché-SHIZU
- Yakusoku wa dekinai (約束はできない) LP (zero records, 1984; CD reissue on Alchemy Records, 2001)
- V.A., Aura Music LP (zero records, 1984)
- V.A., Welcome to Dreamland LP/CD (celluloid, 1985)
- Nazareth (ナザレ) CD (PSF, 1993)
- A Journey CD (PSF, 1994)
- Live 1996 Suisho CD (PSF, 1997)
- Glimmering Star (瞬きの星) LP (Aleutian Retto, 1999; CD reissue on Alchemy Records, 2001)
Collaborations
- East Bionic SymphoniaEast Bionic SymphoniaEast Bionic Symphonia were a group of improvisers and artists who studied together under Takehisa Kosugi at the Bigakko artschool in Tokyo in the mid-1970s. As a graduation project they recorded an album of free improvisation that was edited by Kosugi and released on the ALM label in 1976. Several...
, s/t LP/cassette (Kojima, 1976) - Takashi Kazamaki & Chie Mukai, Kaze o aruku LP (Fukyosha, 1983)
- Marginal ConsortMarginal ConsortMarginal Consort is a Japanese collective/free improvisation group made of sound and visual artists, who have played one concert annually since 1997. The group originally grew out of the East Bionic Symphonia, who recorded one album in 1976...
, Collective Improvisation CD (PSF, 1998) - Chie Mukai, Jutok KanekoJutok KanekoJutok Kaneko was a Japanese guitarist and vocalist, and is best known for his work with Tokyo underground psychedelic rock group Kousokuya , who specialised in rock-based soundscapes characterised by the feeling of infinite space, desolate emotion and imminent chaos.- History :Kaneko was born in...
, Christophe CharlesChristophe CharlesChristophe Philippe Charles is a Haitian poet. Born in Port-au-Prince, Charles received a philosophy degree from the University of Haiti. One of his best-known poems is Désastre .-References:...
, Ikuro TakahashiIkuro TakahashiIkuro Takahashi is a Japanese drummer and percussionist. He has been a central member of many groups from the Tokyo psychedelic underground from the early eighties. Some of the groups he has played with include High Rise, Kousokuya, Maher Shalal Hash Baz, Fushitsusha, Ché-SHIZU, Nagisa ni te, LSD...
, Yoko Muronoi, The Planet I video/DVD (there, 2000) - Chie Mukai & Masayoshi UrabeMasayoshi Urabeis a Japanese musician, best known for his intensely physical style of free improvisation on the alto saxophone and his deployment of long, laden silences. He has sometimes been compared to the late Japanese free jazz altoist Kaoru Abe...
, Dual Anarchism LP/video (Siwa, 2002) - Chie Mukai & Seiichi Yamamoto & Lamones Young, s/t CD (Last Visible Dog / Hospital Productions, 2003)
- Chie Mukai & Rinji Fukuoka, L'energie d'existence CD (Turtle's Dream, 2003)
- Enkidu, Hasselt CD (Turtle's Dream, 2004)
- Chie Mukai & Gary SmithGary Smith (Guitarist)Gary Smith is a avant-garde guitarist, improviser and composer from the United Kingdom. He is known for developing dense extended techniques on electric guitar...
, Eight+ CD (Paratactile, 2004)
Guest appearances
- Morio AgataMorio AgataAgata Morio is a Japanese folk rock singer-songwriter and actor. He also directed three films. He was born on 12 September 1948 in Rumoi, Hokkaido....
(あがた森魚), Norimono zukan (乗物図鑑) LP (Vanity, 1981; CD reissue, Bridge, 2007) - Hallelujahs, Niku o kuraite chikai o tateyo (肉を喰らひて誓ひをたてよ) LP (Org Records, 1986; CD reissue, PSF)
- Christoph Gallio, Cars & Variations / High Desert Songs CD (Percaso, 1994)
- Kengo Iuchi (井内賢吾), Inugami to kachiku (犬神と家畜) LP (Kubitsuri, 1995)
- Kengo Iuchi, Hanagurui no yoru cassette (Shikoku Manto, 1995)
- Kengo Iuchi, Kuon no kane no ne cassette (Vanilla, 1995)
- Nagisa ni teNagisa ni teis a Japanese psychedelic-folk rock duo. The group's name is translated as "on the beach". Shinji Shibayama, the group's founder — anda previous member of Idiot O'Clock and Hallelujahs — is also owner of Org Records, which has released albums from groups like Maher Shalal Hash Baz and Naoki Zushi...
, On the love beach LP/CD (Org Records, 1995) - V.A., Los Angeles Free Music SocietyLos Angeles Free Music SocietyThe Los Angeles Free Music Society has been, since the early 1970s, the banner heading of a loose collective of experimental musicians in Los Angeles, California who were joined by an aesthetic based around radicalism and playfulness...
1973-1995：The lowest form of music CD boxset (Cortical Foundation/RRRRRRRRR may refer to:*RRR, a common indicator of the level of purity* 3RRR, a community radio station, based in Melbourne, Australia* Ra Ra Riot, an American indie rock band from Syracuse, New York...
, 1996) - Kengo Iuchi/MSBRMSBRMSBR is the name of a recording project of Japanese noise musician Koji Tano that was based out of Matsuyama, then later Tokyo. MSBR was active starting in the early 1990s, releasing music on numerous labels, often in limited pressings...
, Icht CD (alien8, 1998) - Maher Shalal Hash BazMaher Shalal Hash BazMaher Shalal Hash Baz is the artistic alter ego of Tori Kudo, a Japanese naivist composer and musician. The name is taken from Maher-shalal-hash-baz in the Book of Isaiah verses 8:1 and 8:3, and translates roughly as "Hurrying to the spoil, he has made haste to the plunder." Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz...
, From a Summer to Another Summer (An Egypt to Another Egypt) CD (Geographic)